1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to an architecture for isolating an RF micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) device from a substrate and driving circuit, series and shunt digital variable capacitors (DVC) die architectures, and smaller MEMS arrays for high frequency communications.
2. Description of the Related Art
Variable capacitors can be used to optimize the performance of RF circuits like antennas and RF-filters. Using standard complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) batch processing to fabricate these devices can ensure a high volume production and a low cost of these devices. However, integrating passive RF devices on silicon poses some challenges due to coupling of the RF signal to the lossy silicon substrate and monolithic CMOS active circuits. This can introduce both electric and magnetic losses which will reduce the effective Q of these capacitors and noise/spurious disturbs, which all will negatively impact the overall system performance.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for variable capacitors integrated with CMOS circuits on the same chip.